THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230028
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: FUN TIMES
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
THE TEENAGE entertainment business is as fickle as fickle can be.
As soon as one discovers a nifty place to chill, it's being smashed into rubble by wrecking balls or it closes down. So went the Cabaret Voltaire. Or it gets turned into an ``urban dance club'' like the Nsect Club's metamorphosis into a hideous dance club called Fat Bellies, where we cannot go.
Anyway, as I had been hoping for quite some time, a new coffeehouse has opened in Norfolk, and it smacks of the Cab's old attitude. It is called the West End Cafe, and it is at the site of the Cafe Napoleon, the former reigning cool coffeehouse.
You see, the Cafe Napoleon's owners were in the process of remodeling it into a ``nice'' cafe when they decided to sell it. I'm glad they did. It was sold to someone who seems to be handling this coffeehouse owner deal with ease. And it has been open only a week and a half.
A beautiful example of the nonchalant manner in which the owner and manager conduct themselves (i.e., the way they should) was when, during a Tuesday night poetry reading, an excellent, yet explosive poet stood to recite. About halfway through his recitation, a flashbulb went off. Big deal. But the poet yelled, ``Who the (unprintable expletive) took a picture?'' and then stomped out. The photographer was only taking a picture of the kitchen.
In the past, the photographer might have been thrown out or there might have been a scene. But the West End's owners just ignored it while the emcee for the reading called, ``Next!''
As if the coolness of the owners isn't enough, the food, coffee and service are good, and they have a monthly chess tournament in which the winner gets a bottomless cup of coffee for a month, the best idea I've heard all week.
Sigh, I love it.
So if you wanna check the place out, it's open Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday from 7 p.m. till midnight and on Friday and Saturday from 7 p.m. till 3:30 a.m., maybe later. The West End Cafe is on 21st Street in Norfolk across from the Generic Theatre. MEMO: Alicia Luma's column, Fun Times, appears twice a month in Teenology. If
you'd like to let her know what's going on, call Infoline at 640-5555
and enter category 8989. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Alicia Luma is a home- schooled junior.
by CNB